


Hunt for the Truth

by ATryingHuman



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-10 21:25:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ATryingHuman/pseuds/ATryingHuman
Summary: Valerie Gray thinks about the unvealing events of "D-stabilized" and is determined to find out the truth about Dani's and Vlad's transformations. She believes one very annoying ghost-boy holds the secret to understanding the whole picture... Ever wonder what would happen if Valerie found out the big secret before Phantom Planet? I did ;)





	1. Chapter 1

Black hair, blue eyes. White hair, green eyes. As Valerie tried to remember every detail she could about the little ghost (Human? Ghost-human? She wasn’t sure anymore) girl whom she had helped save the day before, she got increasingly frustrated.

So humans could turn into ghosts and ghosts could turn into humans, and she couldn’t even tell herself she was being a lunatic because she’d seen two of them do it with her own two eyes. Which brought to mind her even bigger problem with an even bigger name: Vlad Masters.

He was a ghost. A ghost. And he sent her on a crusade to become a skilled ghost huntress just so he could see himself free of his little ghost rivals. She had been tricked by him. She’d been used as an unaware pawn in his plans, and that made her blood boil under her skin. She had been tricked by a ghost. She had been tricked by a man. Yes, he was a man, for the facts she found about him on the Internet couldn’t have been completely fake; there were pictures of the guy in his college years on his wikipedia page, and you could literally see the age difference throughout his mayor campaigning. So yes, he was a ghost, and, yes, he was a man. Just like Danielle was both a young pre-teen and a quite powerful ghost-girl.

That last thought drove her eyes back to the sheet of paper in front of her. Two columns of words could already be seen on it, titled Human and Ghost, but then she added a third one. Consistencies, she wrote on top of it. Right beneath it, she wrote three words: skin, height, features.

Valerie was weighing the physical differences of Danielle’s human and ghost forms. She had been thinking about that for the whole day, but only when nighttime fell she had the time to sit at her desk and put it all down neatly. The girl took a sip of her coffee mug and analysed the words, scraping at the back of her tired brain for confirmation or denial.  
Skin. Yes, the color of her skin had been the same before and after transformation, although if outlined by a spooky glow in her ghost form. The glow was a regular ghost thing, she figured. But the pinkish cheeks weren’t, she thought.

...

Next.

Height. Okay, the height stayed the same too. No biggie here.

Features. This was a little harder. Valerie never realised until now how hard it was to recall people’s face features without having their eyes or hair color mess up her mental picture. Maybe if she was an artist it would be easier, but she was a huntress, and that was clearly not her field of work. 

That said, she was convinced she would be able to at least recognize the most distinguishable changes on her features. The problem was, she couldn’t remember any. So, as far as she could tell, Dani ( with an I, said the disgusting voice of a certain billionaire mayor voice somewhere in her head) mantained the exact same facial features both as a human girl and as a ghost.

She shook her head at the paper, confounded. She saw Dani change. But she saw Masters and she saw Plasmius too. And the latter two were absolutely nothing alike. Plasmius’s complexion was much more alike that of a normal ghost, and the vampire fangs combined very well with the vampire hair and the vampire costume. She would actually laugh at a ghost like that if she didn’t know how powerful he was – and who he was.

She got up in a sudden motion and paced around her room for a few seconds. Then, she threw herself on the bed. Gosh, why does this had to be so confusing? And it got worse... She’d been trying to prevent his name from permeating her thoughts for a while now, but since the end of their rescue mission, one word had obnoxiously clung to the back of her mind.

Family.

Danny Phantom had said Dani Phantom was his cousin. And if she was a half-human, half-ghost or whatever, that could have some mighty implications on the so-called protector of Amity Park himself. It had to be one of three options: 1) they were just coincidentally similar, and so he had just adopted her as his cousin out of fondness (Yeah, right, as if you could believe that, Valerie); 2) they were actually related, but only on Danielle’s ghost part, meaning Phantom would still be a full-on ghost (It’s possible, right?); and 3) they were fully related, meaning they shared more than just appearance, and so the ghost-boy would also be... just a boy.

She wished from the depths of her heart that the third one would not be true. She was terrified of that possibility. Yes, the combination of DNA and ectoplasm in one single being would definitely explain the abnormal strenght and powers Phantom seemed to have compared to most ghosts – as it did appear to explain Plasmius levels of power -, but that was not what scared her the most. Because if he was part human, then she would have been shooting, hunting and (God!) torturing one of her own all this time.

Valerie was scared, and she was scared of herself.

The teenager closed her eyes and, after a couple of seconds, let out a deep sigh. She then got up off her bed and walked over to her desk. Turning to the next page, she copied the same three columns she had drawed before, but this time she added a name on top of them. Danny Phantom.

She stared at it for a while before putting on her pajamas and brushing her teeth. She wasn’t going to spend time on that now, she was tired. And besides, she thought, looking at the motion in the bathroom mirror, Tomorrow’s Saturday.

I got a completely free day ahead of me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Saturday, 12.12 a.m.**

Valerie looked at her watch from the corner of her eye. She handed over a medium bag of N-Fries, one double-meat N-Burger and a large grape soda to the boy on the other side of the counter.

“That would be $9.15”, she said in a dull voice.

The customer took the money from his wallet slowly, seemingly unaffected by the non-existent age gap between the employee in front of him and himself. Valerie, on the other hand, noticed the fact with a sinking feeling to her stomach, one to which she already felt acquainted, but not at all resigned.

And, of course, it was all the fault of those two words written on her notebook. Because of them, she’d lost everything, from her friends, to her home, to her own father’s trust. Because of them, she’d had to enter the employment world way sooner than her primary intentions, and now she felt compelled to work Saturday shifts just for the sake of getting some money. And because of them...

The corners of her lips perched up. Well, thanks to him, she was going to find out the truth about half-ghosts, the ghost zone and every other little secret she needed to know in order to rid Amity Park of ghost activity for good. All she had to do was figure out what part he played in the story. After that...

...

Hm, she was pretty sure she’d come up with something.

When the clock above the soda machine showed 1:00 p.m., Valerie took off her cap and apron, hanged them both on the kitchen door’s handle and practically flew out of the fast-food franchise. She knew she should have put away her uniform, but honestly? She couldn’t handle having to stand the smell of grease for the sixth time that week, and her shift was over, so it wasn’t her problem anymore.

The girl wandered on the streets for a while, throwing a bitter look at the clothes behind the glass showcases. After two minutes of straight ahead walking, she took a sharp left and headed to Amity Park’s park. She was officially free for the rest of the day, but she didn’t feel like going back home just yet.

As she searched the place for a nice tree to sit under, she felt her backpack weigh down both on her shoulders and on her mind. She remembered groggily answering her phone that morning, then shoving it along with her notebook in her backpack and rushing to the Nasty Burger after a hurried kiss on her dad’s cheek. And now she opened it to be greeted by the three columns sleepily drawn by her the night before.

She took a deep breath. Was she really going forward with this? It was only one out of her three theories (well, two if I get a grip on myself and only consider the actually logical ones). But she didn’t have anything else to work on at the moment, and she knew doing nothing but wait would just waste her sanity away.

Sitting there, watching the people of her town as they took their dogs for a walk on a warm Saturday afternoon, the girl decided to ignore the paper sheet. Instead, she went over her fairly simple plan:

First, I wait for Phantom to show up. Next, I capture him. Then, I interrogate him and find a way to make him tell me the truth...

And how the hell was she going to do that? She threw her head back, exasperated, her chin pointing to the blue sky. It was a crappy plan, made under crappy behind-the-counter-serving-oil-and-fat-filled-burgers-to-people-y circunstances. She had to think of something better, or at least of a way to complete that third step that didn’t involve her once again torturing the ghost-boy.

Especially not after those recent discoveries. She had to know, first. She had to be sure.

If only there were any ghostly lie-detectors device thingies on the electronic stores, she pondered. She could make a special request to Vlad Masters and have him make one, but she didn’t want him to figure out what she was up to. Additionaly, she wasn’t about to go asking that scummy man for help, that wasn’t even a question.

With the back of her head supported by the tree, she watched the sparse fluffy clouds drag themselves lazily across the sky. If Dani was still around, I bet I could get some answers out of her. The kid did prove herself an easy fish to bait: it had been the smoothest capture she ever made of Phantom(s). But, after her cousin sprayed her with that Fenton “Ecto-dejecto” or whatever, she had flown far away with renovated streng- 

Wait a second, the Fentons! Their inventions weren’t in the market, but maybe they had something to appease her needs! And if they did, perhaps she could talk her way into convincing them to hand it to her. Now that was more like a plan.

She got up, excited to just get into some action, and in doing so dropped the notebook, which had been lying on her lap all the while. She stared at it. The blank columns stared back.

Ugh. I’ll get back to you later.

She picked it up, shoved it back into her backpack and quickly found her way out of the park. In less than thirty minutes, she was standing in front of Fenton Works, home of the dorkiest ghost-hunters in town. And the boy I gave up on for ghost-hunting, she thought with a heavy heart.

She rang the doorbell, hoping that Danny wouldn’t be the one to show up. Looking up, she couldn’t help marveling at the way the house’s roof, slash, Operation Center towered against the sky, intimidating the neighboring more modest constructions. Danny’s parents could be near to useless in a fight against ghosts (well, his dad, mostly), but they did live up to the “inventors” title. The opening of the door ended up interrupting her thoughts. A redhaired girl stood in front of her.

“Hey, Jazz!”

“Oh, hello there! Valerie, right? Uhm, sorry, but Danny’s... out! Do you want me to-”

“Oh, no need to do anything! I’m actually here to talk to your parents.”

Jazz made a funny face. “To my parents? Why?”

None of your business, girl genius. “Oh, just a school project! Are they here?”. She peeked behind Jazz’s back, but couldn’t see past the empty living room.

“Sure, they’re in the basement. Come in, let me take you there.”

Valerie followed the older girl down the stairs and into the underground laboratory. She looked, genuinely interested, at the devices, machines and other inventions so bizarre she didn’t even know the category they fit in. At the right side of the conspicuous ghost-portal, working on a goo-looking sort of substance, stood Maddie and Jack Fenton.

They were bent on their stomachs, carefully measuring and mixing different liquids into the substance. Well, she was. While Maddie Fenton did all the handwork, Jack shadowed her with whispers of “careful now” and “slowly, darling”. She obviously didn’t need his advice, but had a smile on her lips nonetheless.

Valerie watched the scene for a moment, but she wasn’t the type to wait around. So she went up to them and said, shortly and direct:

“Hey there! Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys happen to have any kind of... ghostly... lie-detector? You know... For ghosts.”

They stopped the experiment and looked at her. The girl shot them an innocent smile.

“And what does a young girl such as yourself want with a device of that sort?”, asked Maddie.

“It’s for a school project! For Science class!”, Valerie answered confidently, the answer in the tip of her tongue. She mentally thanked Jazz for asking the same thing minutes before. Jack’s eyes lightened up at that.

“Finally! That school’s administrators had to come to their senses at some point! Ghosts are as important a field of Science as any other!”, he stated, pleased. And then his expression turned to confusion. “Wait... There is a ghost themed project at Casper and Danny didn’t tell us about it?”

“Oh! No!”, Valerie had to think quickly on her feet. She couldn’t get Danny into trouble with his parents. “It’s actually a research on useful inventions to all fields of Science, each student was assigned to one. And we weren’t allowed to pick!”, she hurriedly added.

“Ah, if that’s the case...”. Jack still seemed somewhat disappointed, but at least now he didn’t think it was his son’s fault. Not like Danny would pick this theme, anyway, the girl thought to herself. He’s really scared of ghosts...

“Well, dear, we’ll try to help as best as we can, but I don’t think we have anything like you described...”, said Maddie, helpfully unhelpful. She then moved on to search through the drawers in the lab. By the third one, she stopped, turned around and came back to them, carrying something in her hands.

“Ah! Genius, Maddie!”, Jack exclaimed, taking the device from her and shaking it before the teenager's face. “It’s the Fenton Ghost Gabber! We invented that to translate the gibberish ghosts speak! Maybe if we mess around with it for a bit we can re-program it to detect ghost-lies!”  
“You’d do that for me?”. Valerie was open-mouthed.

“Anything to turn the spark of ghost-hunting into a fire burning strong in the hearts of our youth!”, he replied enthusiastically. “I’ll start right away, and you’ll have it ready by tomorrow!”

“Thank you! That’s more than I was hoping for!”, she said, true to heart. She was incredibly happy; she didn’t think she would get so far, so fast. She thanked them one more time and went back upstairs. She looked around to say goodbye to Jazz and finally go home. The redhead showed up behind her, from the very same door to the lab.

Odd. Valerie didn’t realize Jazz had been standing there with them the whole time. Guess she had just been quietly watching the three of them from the corner. The Fentons were definitely a family of weirdos, but she wasn’t one to judge (Heh. Maybe the past me was), so she just rolled with it.

The girls exchanged polite smiles and goodbyes, and then Valerie was alone in front of the house. She turned, and as the distance between her and the Fentons’ door grew bigger, the satisfied grin on her face grew wider.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sunday, 8.29 a.m**

When the sunrays that shined through the windows’ blinds started to warm the room, Valerie opened her eyes hazily. Her head staggered through still vivid images of ecto-guns, a door-filled alternate reality and legless glowy humanoids. She lay on the bed for a while, letting herself absorb the atmosphere of the awaken world, eyes gently closing as she begun to fall back asleep.

And then her alarm went off. A loud punk-rock tune started playing from her phone, placed on her bedside table at her left. She hated punk music, but she always grew to hate even the nicest of songs if she made them her alarm ringtone, so she figured she could endure a bit of that cacophony every morning for the sake of her playlist’s survival.

She turned it off, looking at the time. The screen showed 8:30 a.m. Maybe a little early for a teenager to be up on a Sunday, but she was pretty strict about her work-out routine. If, after breakfast, she wasn’t able to do at least 20 pull-ups on her bar, she’d get cranky for the rest of the day.

By the time she was done, she took a hot shower and put on a pretty stay-at-home dress. She sat in front of her mirror and styled her hair, absentmindedly moistening the curly locks with cream. She was hoping to kill some time before going back to the Fentons’, but it was going to be hard.

Last night, she did everything she could to avoid filling in the dreaded columns. She had a feeling the answer they were going to bring to light was not one she would easily take in. Because of that, she’d spent the night working on her Physics and History assignments, and now there was only Math homework left to do.

Another look at the clock. 10:21 a.m. By 10:40 she would be done with Math and would inevitably have to face those stubborn lines. The teen tried to stall, but after 20 minutes her prediction came true and she was putting the schoolbook away. Now she had nowhere to run from the notebook. But hey, she might have been scared, because being a 15-year-old girl, part-time employee and full-time ghost-hunter _was_ a full plate for anyone, but Valerie Gray was not a quitter, and she wasn’t giving up on her objectives for some stupid feelings of fear.

Determined, she walked to the desk, sat on her chair and opened the darned notebook. The first problem she was faced with was how she was going to treat Phantom’s transformation changes. Like his cousin’s: subtle, but effective? Or like Vlad’s: completely different, of the she-would-never-have-guessed-on-her-own type?

Let's start small. There were two things she saw change equally for both ghosts: hair and eye color. Okay. On the first column – _Ghost –,_ she wrote things down:   _White hair_ and _Green eyes_. It was Dani all over again.  _Geez, could it be because they're cousins?_  Sarcasm was a defense mechanism at this point. But she had to remain logical.  _Easy now, Valerie. You don't want to jump to conclusions._ Her pen drifted in the air towards the second column:  _Human_. Before carrying on, she reminded herself this was all speculation, a _hypothetical_ idea that could and could  _not_  be true.  _So, hypothetically,_ she reflected,  _and because Dani's black hair turned white and Vlad's white hair turned black..._ Her hand stiffly wrote the words  _Black hair_.

The eyes were a more caution-needed subject: both half-ghosts had blue human eyes; however, while the girl's eyes turned green, the billionaire's became a strange reddish thing. So Phantom's eyes were green, but who's to say they weren't brown, hazel or even green on his ( _hypothetical,_ her mind screamed) human form too? There was no guarantee he also had, like his cousin's, -

_Blue eyes_ were the words in black ink on the paper. She didn't realize she'd been following her train of thought with her hand.

Yet again she looked at the time, this time on the computer screen... which she forgot to turn off. Half-relieved for the distraction, she pushed herself along with the wheeled chair so she could face the screen up close. With the mouse hovering over the "turn off" button, she noticed someone sent her a message in the few minutes she was inactive. A tiny notification number blinked before her next to the name of the sender, whose profile pic was that of a purple bat:

S. Manson.

Sam was talking to her? The only reason she ever had for talking to Valerie was when she was being overprotective of Danny, but the huntress had already sacrificed their promising relationship to fully pursue her other goals. So what did she want now?  _Only one way to know_ , she shrugged _._ She clicked on the message:

~Hi, Valerie. Sam here. I heard you went to the Fenton’s house and ordered some weird gizmo. For a Science assignment. Which we both know does not exist. And I know you’re gonna give me the “It’s none of your business!” crap, so I’m just gonna say: if this is about Danny, please let it go, because he, despite everything, did. If it’s not, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Ghosts can be dangerous, you know.

What. Was. That.

What was that? Did Sam know about her huntress occupation? Did she know what Valerie was trying to find out? More importantly, _why did she have to bring Danny into this?_ She was pissed. Sam was decidedly getting an answer. She bent over the keyboard:

~Sam. You know, I think you’re right. This _is_ none of your business. It’s for my own personal, PRIVATE project. And guess what? The Fentons were okay with doing it. I’m going to get my device today and hopefully get around to using it right away. Oh, and next time you tell me how to live MY life? Don’t. And don’t bring your frustrated goth crush into it.

Sent. That ought to shut her down. Why did Sam even message her anyway? There was nothing there that made her want to give up. If anything, it only made her resolution more solid. The goth should have known that by now...

Did she? Was Sam trying to get her to go through with her plan through some kind of reverse psychology? How did she find out anyway? Was... Was Jazz involved in this too? Was _Danny_? Oh no, did she actually just let that dumb hot head of hers take control of her actions again? _What was going on?!_

Her eyes ran through her rash answer once more, and she felt stupid. She needn’t have answered that. She could’ve simply not answered at all. That would’ve been such a better, _more reasonable_ option. Then, her eyes fell on the time. It was noon already.

She stood up, making a mental tasks list: _Lunch. Breathing exercise. Fenton Works. Yeah, I can do that._

And so she did.


	4. Chapter 4

“...and when it detects a lie, these two small light bulbs light up, and you can hear a voice telling you the sly ghost was lying. I programmed the speech myself, and am quite proud of it!”

“Oh, Jack, you do have _marvelous_ mechanical skills!”

Valerie averted her eyes from the all-new Fenton (Ghost-)Lie Detector and looked at the couple standing in front of her. If it did work, then she had to agree with Maddie on this one: Jack _was_ a helluva capable inventor. They made a good team, the two of them.

“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton! I’m sure the whole classroom will be really interested on what this baby does!”

The Fentons smiled at the girl’s lie; her guilt-filled sunken stomach made her feel thankful the detector worked solely on ectoplasm. Jack took a step forward:

“A shame, though, we didn’t get the chance to test it out on real ghosts. It should work just as fine as the Gabber did, but still...”

“Ah, don’t worry! I’m sure the teacher won’t mind if I rely on the theoretical part of it!”, she assured him. That wasn’t a total lie: she knew the teacher really wouldn’t mind, if that happened to be a real project. She was eager to get some of her own testing done that same afternoon, though. “Look, I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I have to get going! So thanks once again, and I’ll return it as soon as I can!”

“No problem, kiddo! You can keep it as long as you need it!”, Jack said.

“Oh, and don’t forget to tell us all the details about how it went later, too!”, Maddie completed.

They waved goodbye to Valerie as she walked away down the street, entering the first dark alleyway she came across. Sheltered from prying eyes, she let her Red Huntress gear surround and wrap her body, suiting her up. Activating her board, she hovered a few feet from the ground, then launched herself above the buildings, performing a patrol of sorts.

The Huntress was on the lookout for any ghost she could find; what she needed right now was a lab rat. But when she saw a black and white streak cross the twilight sky, she did not complain at all.

He was flying with fast, patterned movements. It took her a second, but then she perceived a smaller figure ahead of him. He was after someone. Or _something_. She saw an opportunity. Approaching the scene as close as she could without getting noticed, the girl hid behind a huge dental care ad outdoor.

She heard plasma shots and (children?) laughter. She risked a peek, but gave up when she immediately saw Phantom yelling something towards her general direction.

“Hey, aren’t you too young to be out without your parents? It’s going to get dark real soon!”

Typical banter. The ghost thought he was clever with those remarks, but in Valerie’s opinion he cracked the worst jokes she ever heard. She wondered if he could’ve been a failed stand-up comedian in his past life, who died of hunger because he couldn’t make any money. The dark humour of the idea made her chuckle dryly at herself, and she dismissed it shortly. _Nah, he looks too young for that_. She waited for his adversary’s reply. For what she could identify, it was a weird small pirate. For a moment, she couldn’t decide if she was looking at a dwarf or a young boy, until a childish voice confirmed the latter.

“And aren’t _you_ too young to keep repeating the same jokes and being the only one to laugh at them? Oh, I forgot, you’re a _teenager_. That’s just about the right age for that.”

Ouch. Whoever was that kid Phantom was fighting, he hit the spot. She peeked again, trying to see his reaction. The ghost-boy darted mid-air towards the pirate, who was calmly floating in front of the borderline creepy white-teethed man of the ad. Wait _. He’s coming right **this** way._

She saw the opening and took it. When Phantom was no less than 5 meters from the outdoor, she slided her body underneath it and jumped at him. They both rolled over the rooftop after the impact, wrestling all the way to the edge, where she ended up on top of his back, pressing his chest against the building. She managed to lock his wrists and ankles on her top-notch ecto-handcuffs, which hadn’t failed her once.

Not yet allowing herself to breathe, she stood up hastily and scanned for the other ghost. Gone. She put both hands on her hips, softening her stance, and looked at the ghost beneath her feet. He somehow managed to sit down, and was watching her with a fairly puzzled look on his face.

“...I’m guessing this is a special ocasion, since you let little peg-leg fly away that easily. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

She kept a serious face, but didn’t answer. The short length chase had left them very close to the docks, and she could see some empty containers nearby. She supposed they would suffice for the privacy she needed. She triggered the hover board once again and prepared to lift his light weight.

“Sorry, but I’m asking the questions today.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Answer me this: are you a ghost?”

He looked at her with disbelief. “Uh, yeah? That’s why you’ve got me on these cuffs in the first place. Are you feeling alright, Huntress? What kind of question is that?”

Valerie clenched her fists. “Don’t get funny with me, ghost-kid.”, she said in a low voice. He raised an eyebrow at her, questioningly, but remained silent. She took a moment before asking something else. The inside of the container was dark, and even though there was light coming through the opening, she was mostly relying on her visor to look at her surroundings. The Lie Detector was safe in her grasp, but she maintained her arms lowered in order not to raise suspicion from her interrogatee. He seemed honestly confused, so maybe she should put a little context to her next question.

“Is... Danielle a ghost?”

That did the trick. He shifted uncomfortably on the floor, apparently trying to figure out where this was going. She could guess he was probably close.

“Yes... she is”. His eyes were on her hands, where she held the small gadget. He couldn’t possibly know what it was, but it seemed to cause him disquiet. She interpreted this as a sign to go on.

“And... is she a human?”

A pause.

“Yes, she is. But you knew that already.”

“That’s not the point of this conversation.”, she retorted, slightly irked at the remark.

“Then what is?”

“I thought I said _I_ was doing the asking, ghost!”. His question worked as a cue to her next one, though. She wanted to erase that teasing look from his face.

“Are _you_ a human?”

Silence. He stared at her for very intense five seconds, then rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Really? What could’ve possibly given you the reason to think Dani _isn’t_ the only one of her kind?”

“Well, let’s just say you were right. For once.”, she admitted, thinking of Vlad. His eyes went wide upon hearing that, and the grin evolved into a smirk.

“Wow, that’s something I don’t hear everyday. Would you mind enlightening me on what exactly I was right about? Or maybe just repeat that last line, I’m good with that too.”

An-noy-ing. “I feel so _much_ _more_ like repeating that PUNCH I landed on you earlier, Phant...”

She stopped, looking at his smile. He was _playing_ her. Using her hot-bloodedness against her. _C’mon, Valerie, get it together and do what you came here for._ She took a deep  breath, gathering her determination not to shoot him in the face with her ecto-gun. His smile faltered a bit and neon-green eyes sparked with concern. Good.

“Answer the question, Phantom. Are you a human?”

God, she was getting tired of his pauses. She thought of asking a third time, but for some reason she didn’t think it would promote the results she was hoping for. So they just glared at each other for a while. Until he finally opened his mouth.

“I can’t answer that.”

No noise from her hand. He really couldn’t _physically_ answer? Or did he just _believe_ he couldn’t answer? She realized her heart was beating faster than normal.

“Why not?”

“You know, the answer for that question kinda answers the last one too, so I’ll pass.”

“I’m not giving up on this, you know.”

“Well, that makes two of us.”

“You’re not making this easy for me, Phantom.”

“Ha, you’re one to talk. Ever since _you_ ’ _ve_ been around, my _life_ hasn’t been easy in the slightest.”

“You want to spend the whole night here, ghost? I know I can.”

“See, you keep calling me ghost. That’s really all there is to know about me!”

A clear, articulated woman voice interrupted them with a loud, but calm “Lies! Lies! Evil ghost detected!”. She looked at the yellow lights blinking on the palm of her hand, then raised her head at him, triumphant. His features were strained with some kind of emotion... Guilt, maybe? _No_ , she thought, _that’s **regret**_. She knew he’d just slipped, caught up in the middle of their discussion. She waved the Fenton Lie-Detector in the air.

“ _Now_ I got you. Do you know what this is?”

He studied the object, unimpressed. “You’re just going to tell me, aren’t you?”

“It’s a lie detector”, she continued, ignoring his sass, “A _ghost_ lie detector. And looks like _your_ pants are on fire, ghost-boy.”

“Sorry about that, I guess our conversation BURNED me up a little bit.”

She cringed at the joke. This was _so_ not good for her blood pressure. The lie-detector was still going, as Jack said it would for another half-minute, but it only served to make her angrier. He noticed her annoyance with a smug look.

“You didn’t like my fire pun? Don’t worry, I can always... COOL it down.”. He made a sudden move, pointing his palms to the chain connecting his hands together. A whitish-blue mist came out of them, causing the chain to be frozen solid. Valerie was caught off-guard:

“What the-“

He broke free, of course. She forgot about his ice powers ( _it wasn’t something he used frequently!_ ), so the cuffs were not proofed against them. She took her gun from her belt and aimed at him, but he was already phasing and reaching for the ceiling. She shouted at him: “This isn’t over! I’m gonna find out if you’re the same as your cousin!”

He shot her an intangible smile and replyed with “Are you the same as everyone in your family? Dani and I have our differences, you know!”, then disappeared through the wood.

Valerie was left on the floor, gun on her hand fuming from the charged, but un-shot blast. She had him on her hands, and let him escape. _I can’t believe how dumb I was!_ She wouldn’t forgive herself for her mistake. She had thrown everything she worked for for the last couple of days away, because she’d overlooked his ice powers. She’d been careless. She’d...

A blinking light in the corner of her eye caught her attention. There it was, lying on the floor, the device she believed would be her way to the truth. She picked it up. It had clearly detected a lie other than his first slip, because otherwise the lights would have already faded by now.

Her heart raced, and it was not from the brief comotion. She did it. She got her answer. She didn’t think Phantom realized what he did, but he had practically confessed to her:

_“Dani and I have our differences, you know!”_

That was what he’d said. But he didn’t believe it. And now she didn’t either.


	5. Chapter 5

Valerie paced fast on the sidewalk. The night air was quite chilly, but she didn’t notice; her chest was filled with warmth, both from her brief fight with the ghost and also from sheer excitement.

It felt like she’d been walking a long and toilsome path since the day her father got fired, but now she could finally see the end of it. The girl was so close to finding the whole truth that she could practically see herself chasing all the evil ghosts away from Amity Park and back where they came from. She’d be a hero, and maybe her life would go back to being, well, not the same, but somewhat on the same levels of comfort than before.

She was so pleased with herself, she had even decided to walk back home instead of using her hoverboard (she knew she wouldn’t be getting any sleep any soon anyway, so what’s the hurry?). In fact, Valerie was so busy thinking about all the good implications of her foundings, her following thought dawned upon her like an anvil would fall on the head of the unsuspecting coyote.

 _Wait._ She stopped midwalk. _Then that actually means I’ve..._

God, no. She was an awful human being. Did she really tortured another person? Not only that, but she had proof of it now, too. He was supposed to be dead, and pain would mean nothing but a reminiscence of his time as a human being, but could that argument really excuse her of inflicting suffering on any being? If Phantom’s discourse about ghosts hadn’t got her to change her way of thinking, this definitely would. Jesus, she had to find better means to figh-

A loud honking made her turn her head to the right, where there stood a car reminding the girl she had been grasping her own illegal actions in the middle of the crossing, but the pedestrian light had just turned red. As she ran to the other side of the street, she found herself before a very familiar bakery at its closing time. This was the Fentons’ neighbourhood. The flashy building was just down the street from there. She observed the pastries and bread loaves being taken out of the showcase, and the thought of paying the ghost hunters one last visit settled in her mind.

Yeah, maybe Phantom was part human, but that didn’t excuse or explain some of his actions. Like that time when he _attacked_ the mayor? Or when he joined a ghost thieves gang and _stole_ a lot of money and precious jewelry? Hell, what about the time he _blew_ _her chest off_? Okay, not _her_ chest, her suit’s chest, but how could he know she wasn’t in it? She mentally visualized her notebook and the small list of features she wrote in it. It didn’t matter if his eyes were green or blue or his hair was white or black, the boy was in for some explanation and she was out to get it.

Of course, that obviously didn’t give her reason to downright _torture_ people, but he wasn’t _just_ a human. He was a being who could shoot blasts from his hands, produce ice out of thin air and tear down buildings with his vocal cords. He was still dangerous and Valerie wasn’t planning on letting her guard down that easily. And that’s why she needed to stop at the Fenton’s.

Valerie took a quick step into the bakery, still in time to take the last pastry in view.

 

* * *

 

 

*Ding dong*

Paper bag in hands, the teenage ghost Hunter stood by the house’s front door, patiently waiting for its inhabitants to receive her. She expected both Jack and Maddie to be home, since it was a Sunday evening, and thus was surprised when their son showed up at the threshold.

An awkward moment of silence followed between the two of them.

“Oh... Hi, Danny! Are your parents in?”

“Um, hi, Val-lerie”. The hesitation on wether to use her full name or not was kind of cute. _It’s too bad we had to break up, sorry Danny..._ “My dad’s not home, and my mom is in the kitchen. But she’s, uh, kinda busy now. Is it anything imperative?”

Valerie looked at the bag she was holding on to. She guessed she could just leave it with him, if Maddie didn’t have the time to talk to her. She was about to give him an answer, but a woman’s voice – which Valerie clearly recognized as being Maddie’s – called out from inside:

“Danny? Who is it at the door?”

The boy turned around and, raising a finger to silently ask Valerie to wait a second, shouted back:

“Hey mom! It’s just a friend from school, don’t worry!” Valerie eyed him a bit vexed. Why didn’t he just tell his mother who it was? Fortunately, the woman happened to think in a similar way.

“Names, sweetie, I work with names! Is it Sam?”, to what Danny responded with a discreet sigh that did _not_ go unnoticed by the other teen.

“It’s Valerie, mom.”

“Oh, invite her in, then! What were you waiting for, darling?”

With an expression Valerie would dare name “defeat”, Danny raised his arm in a clearly inviting gesture, and the girl stepped inside the house. They went through the living room and got to the kitchen, where a strong smell of food permeated the air. The girl couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it seemed tasty. Above the origin of the aroma, three big pots on the stove, leaned the turquoise suited ghost huntress.

“Hello, Valerie! What brings you back so soon? Did you get a chance of testing the device?”

“Hi, Mrs. Fenton! Um, in fact I did, but... Maybe I should come back later to talk about it? Since you seem a bit busy right now.” She said, watching the woman throw a pinch of salt into the boiling contents of the bigger pot.

“You did? Wonderful! But yes, perhaps it is... Jack would also love to hear about the experience, but he’s gone shopping for mechanical supplies and won’t be back soon tonight. Is there anything else you wanted, dear?”

“Oh yeah! I wanted to give you this small treat, just as a ‘thank you’ note. It’s a hazelnut cream filled pastry I bought at that close-by bakery”. She showed Maddie the package, and the older woman’s face lighted up at the sight.

“That’s so very nice of you, Valerie! Oh, I can’t take it right now, so please just leave it on the table. I’m sure Jack will love it! And don’t worry, sweetie, if there’s anything you want at all, we can help you, as long as it’s ghost related!”

There she saw an opportunity. “Well, in fact, there’s a little something you could do...”, she started.

“Just name it, dear. Is it a ghost song lyrics generator? Jack has been working on a project for that for a while now...”

“No! No, no, I wanted to know if you have a certain kind of weapon. I’ve been thinking and I came to the conclusion that a non-lethal gun would be a nice complement to my research. Could you possibly have one?”

“Certainly! I think the Fenton Taser would be ideal for that! We don’t use it very often, since we believe it’s a little weak for our purposes, so there’ll be no problem in lending it to you. It works similarly to those tasers police officers use, do you know?”

“Yes, I’m familiar”, she said, thinking of her father’s equipment. “I think that’ll work just fine, Mrs. Fenton!”

“Good! Danny, dear, would you please show her the way and give her the taser? You know the one, right?”

Valerie turned her head to the boy, who had been quietly standing in the kitchen throughout the whole conversation. He hadn’t gone unnoticed, but only now the girl noticed a certain stiffness in his stance.

“Sure, mom, I know the one. I’ll take you, Valerie.” She followed him back through the way they came, only quite slowlier this time. She felt like he didn’t want to be there and wondered why. Did she hurt his feelings so bad he didn’t want to talk to her anymore?

“So... Why do you want a taser for ghosts?”

A conversation starter. So much for the “not wanting to talk” theory.

“Ah, nothing really. I guess I just suddenly developed an interest in ghost stuff.”

He let out a quiet chuckle, more to himself than to her ears. They were now at the stairs to the lab, so she couldn’t see his face from way in front of her, and felt the need to ask why he was laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just... I could’ve sworn you hated ghosts, it’s weird to go looking for a non-lethal weapon like this.”

They reached the underground floor, but she didn’t reply to his comment. They looked for the device silently, him rummaging through the drawers of gadgets and her tagging along. She was estimating the way he might’ve reacted if she told him the truth. _Well, Danny, I’m looking for a non-lethal weapon because I’m the Red Huntress and recently I found out that some ghosts are also humans and I don’t want to accidentally **kill** someone with my ecto-gun. Isn’t that a swell reason? _

When Danny finally found the taser, she was relieved to be taken away from her own head. They went back upstairs and he handed her the object. It was a small metal box, retangular, with an indent from where the eletric shockwaves probably came out of.

“Thanks, Danny.” When he motioned to go back to the kitchen, she put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “Let’s not bother your mother again; I think I’ll just go home right now. Tell her I appreciate her help, though.”

“Whatever you say, if you think that’s best.”

He opened the living room’s door for her, and she stepped outside of it. Valerie turned to say goodbye and take a look at the face of her ex-possible-boyfriend.

Blue eyes under black hair suddenly caught her attention. Her mind mechanically absorbed the details of his face, automatically looking for the similarities. She shook her head, feeling her hands sweat. Storing the taser in her backpack, she struggled not to imagine what the boy would look like if surrounded by a faint glow. When she was done carefully putting the device in the main compartment of the pack, she _tried_ not to measure their height difference to see if it was similar to...

Valerie stepped away from him, eager to get home and test her new ghost taser. Was she getting _this_ paranoid to start comparing Danny to... well, Danny?

Ehrm, that sounded really weird in her internal monologue. Comparing _Danny Fenton_ to _Danny Phantom._ Jesus, that was worse. Sounded like an awfully distasteful pun. Phantom the Lousy Joker _himself_ would probably find that funny...

...

Oh.

_Oh._

She turned on her heels and stood placid on the street, facing the house. The door was still open, the boy leaning on it staring somewhat glumly at the ground. The scene would have fit one of those cult french movies quite alright, but in her eyes it was under an alarmingly close-to-red colored filter, ruining the melancholic effect. She shortened the distance slowly. He seemed to realize something was wrong, turning his gaze towards her with curiosity.

“Danny.”. Her voice was pretty steady.

“Y-yeah? Are you okay?”. She heard “real” concern in his voice. How cute. Behind her back, her hand probed her bag.

“Just fine, Danny. Say, are you a ghost?”. No smiling, no raising her voice. Just plain asking. Inside her backpack, her fingers clutched something made of metal.

“W-what? I live with ghost-hunters, Valerie! What kind of question is that?”. She narrowed her eyes at the question, which made his unease even more evident.

“Just answer the question, please.”, she requested. She held the metal object outside her bag now, but not in his field of view.

“Okay, but you know the answer already.”, he declared. “It’s no.”

She brought her hand before their bodies in a sudden movement, pointing the object towards his face. He flinched. But it didn’t shoot some ectoplasmic blast or electrified him like he thought it would, it just spoke. He opened one eye and looked at the yellow blinking lights, taking in the loud “Lies! Lies! Evil ghost detected”. When he turned his attention to the girl, she was shaking her head slowly at him.

“Valerie.” His voice was firm. She didn’t care. She put the lie detector back in her bag, never unlocking her eyes from his. _Why?_ was her silent question. She didn’t voice it.

“Valerie, let me explain.” She turned again, this time decided to go straight home. He ran around and placed himself in front of her, eyes pleading. “Please?”

She looked at his defensive stance, aware of the massive anger building inside of her. If she didn’t get to be alone, _fast_ , she would probably do something she would regret later. But he was there, insisting. Blocking her way. She wanted to tell him to leave. To go back inside, to get out of her way. She said this instead:

“You shouldn’t have let me.”

He was speechless. Probably processing what she meant, the clueless boy. She took the chance and circled past the surprised teen. By the time he managed to think of something to say, she was already four blocks away. Valerie knew he was able to catch up with her if he wanted. She was glad when he didn’t.

She could really use some alone time that night.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of an ending, but there's an epilogue after that.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading! I love to read your comments!

Danny Fenton ran a hand through his hair.

“Man, it’s the 15th time you’ve done that tonight. You’re gonna go bald.”

“Not _helping_ , Tuck.”

“He’s just trying to get you to relax, Danny.”

The boy looked at his two friends. They were sitting on his bed, trying so hard not to show their worry that it looked like they’d forgotten how to sit. He blamed himself for their stiff stances; he’d been pacing in his room ever since Valerie left the house, unable to sit down, so Sam and Tucker felt they might’ve made things worse if they voiced their own concerns.

Danny sighed, grateful he could depend on those two. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, Tucker. Sorry, Sam.”

“It’s okay. We’re here to help.”, said the goth. At her words, he grimaced and started walking again. He couldn’t help feeling slightly resentful of the girl. She stopped him from going after Valerie and from going out as a ghost altogether – since that would’ve ended up with him flying over to her house anyway. She was right, of course, but consequently he hadn’t had a chance to let off some steam.

“So, Danny!”, started Tucker, seemingly picking up on Danny’s increasing irritation. “Tell us again exactly how that interrogation went. Just to be sure we know what Valerie knows.”

The half-ghost sat at the desk, spinning the chair so that it faced the bed. He calmed down, momentarily diverting his focus to the task of remembering his encounter with the huntress.

“It was so fast... We didn’t even have time to plan anything else. Youngblood just had to show up at the very moment my parents gave Valerie the detector. And, of course, she wouldn’t wait a second to test it...”

“You know that’s not your fault, dude. Nothing happened the way we thought it would. It’s really nobody’s fault.” Sam bit her lip, avoiding their eye contact. Tucker discreetly pushed her with his elbow. She sent him a vexed look, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay, Tucker. Sam was right when she said it before, I should have escaped earlier.”, Danny stated joylessly, interrupting his own recollection.

“No, I wasn’t-“, Sam started, but soon corrected herself. “Or maybe I _was_ right before, maybe not, but Tucker’s right _now_. Youngblood was an unforseen mishap and you had to improvise. It’s done, so let’s think about how to explain this to her and save your skin.”

Danny shook his head slowly. “No, I don’t think she’ll come after me. She looked like she’d seen a- well, like she’d seen _me_ , but the other one.” He paused for a second.

“Anyway, she came out of nowhere, cuffed me and started a full on interrogation. I saw the detector and tried to answer with half-truths, but I slipped. I said that all there was to know about me was that I was a ghost. I _meant_ that was all _she_ needed to know, but I only realized what I was saying mid-sentence!”

Tucker looked at the floor, thinking. “Hm, maybe that’s what triggered it. You realized you were lying the moment you said it.” He turned to Sam with an inquiring look.

“I agree, but that’s kinda vague. What else did you say for her to get suspicious?”

“I guess when I was flying away I said something... dubious.”

“Haha dubious? Paying too much attention to Lancer is dangerous, man.”

“- _and_ I couldn’t exactly turn back to see if the detector’s lights had gone wacko, so I just left.”

“Danny.” The girl called. “What was the dubious thing you said?”

“I said Dani and I have our differences.”. He made quotation marks with his fingers, indicating he recalled the line word by word. Sam and Tucker shared a confused look.

“But... You do have differences. I don’t get what the problem is.”

“It’s like Tucker said... I thought about our personality before I said that, but in the middle of the sentence all I could think of was that she’s a perfect copy of my DNA. I changed my mind at the same time I said it. Maybe the detector picked that up, but I can’t be sure. Also, I have no idea what she meant with that last question...”

There was silence while the three teens absorbed the information and its consequences. Valerie was able to piece everything together from something like that? What was she going to do now? She had a tendency of being predictable in her anger, but when they last saw her – Danny from the door and Tucker and Sam from behind a window – she seemed more hurt and sad than anything else, and that was something new to them.

“The human mind is a complicated place.”, Tucker finally broke the silence. “That’s why I prefer my little babies and their emotionless programmed A.I..”

Sam and Danny watched their friend hold his PDA to his cheek in a caring motion and laughed. From the kitchen they heard Maddie’s voice calling out:

“Danny! Dinner’s ready! Come down and bring your friends!”

“Coming, mom!”, he replied. “Let’s go, guys. My mother is not going to be happy if I make you two be out after curfew.” Getting up from the chair, he walked to the door and opened the door for his friends. Sam was the first to get off the bed.

“It’s okay, Danny. We’ll figure a way to talk to her later. Now we should just leave her be for a while.”

“Yeah, did you see her face? When we saw her pulling something out of her bag, I thought she was gonna shock you with the Fenton Taser right then and there.”

“Same here. She pointed that thing to my face and I thought I was gonna turn into deep fried ghost fries.”

“It’s not funny, boys. She could’ve hurt Danny for real.”

“Oh, come on Sam, I thought you liked fries! At least they’re vegan!”

Things were uncertain. Danny and Valerie’s relationship, Danny and the Huntress’s relationship. Just Valerie’s next actions as a whole. Nevertheless, soothed by his bickering companions, Danny smiled and closed the door behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So I wrote this fic back in Mars - July in FF and I figured I could put it here too, so here I am! I'm editing this straight from my computer files, so it may have some minor changes from the other version. I've notice my use of italic is pretty much shameless, so the transference may take a little while longer than I thought. =\
> 
> Comments and ratings are very welcome, wether you've read it before or not!


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